Dragonlich

Yes it's a straw man. We're discussing Iraq, Saddam Hussain, and why someone thinks Iraq was a threat.

MJW gave some details about Saddam's attrocities, and you reply: "So all those African warlords committing genocide and killing whole tribes of people is ok?" --- that's a straw man argument; nobody said anything about African warlords, but you make it sound as if MJW said their genocide wasn't important, or even okay. You may not have meant that, but then you should have put it in different words.

I fully understand what your line of reasoning is, and I agree that attacking Iraq, but not Sudan, is quite unfair and illogical. However, I'd like to point out that the situations are simply different - Sudan (for example) hasn't violated UN resolutions for the past decade, hasn't invaded it's neighbors recently, hasn't used WMDs recently (apart from a very hush-hush report about Syrian troops using them as a test!); Furthermore, US troops aren't in the area, US warplanes aren't patrolling no-fly zones (and being shot at), and Sudan's leaders haven't tried to assassinate a former US president... the list can go on and on, by the way.

While we're on the subject, I'd like to draw your attention to the incredible, almost deafening silence from the Arab/Muslim world about the murder of some 50,000 Sudanese (African) Muslims by Arab militias in the past 18 months. Compare this to the uproar every time Israel does anything to the Palestinians, or the anger over poor innocent civilians killed in Iraq by the US forces... I'd say the whole middle-east is made up of hypocrites.